Freekeh salad with fresh garden peas, barbeque flavoured peppers and mature Cheddar

Once again I wanted to make a salad with substance so that I would be properly full afterwards. My addition of smoky freekeh and mature Cheddar delivered in this respect and I was quite happy with my salad plate of mixed things. This is quite a good option for busy weekday dinners. Have a look at how I made it.

Ingredients

½ cup smoky freekeh

1 tsp olive oil

1 onion

1 garlic clove

1 vegetable stock cube

Salt

Ground black pepper

Fresh oregano

2 romano peppers

1 tsp olive oil

1 tbsp barbeque sauce

100 g mature Cheddar

1 cup fresh garden peas

Mixed salad leaves

Method

Chop the onion and garlic finely and cook them in olive oil. Add the freekeh, vegetable stock cube and water and cook until the freekeh is done. In the end, drain off any excess water and season with salt, black pepper and oregano to taste.

Cut the peppers into rings and brush them with olive oil and roast in the oven until done. After that brush them with barbeque sauce.

Cut the Cheddar into small cubes. Place all the components onto a plate and serve. Alternatively you can mix them all together, if you prefer.

I also want to share this salad plate idea with the No Croutons Required soup and salad cooking challenge. The challenge is hosted by Lisa from Lisa's Kitchen this month and the co-host for this event is Jacqueline from Tinned Tomatoes.  

Your VegHog 

Mini watercress and Cheddar scones

I have baked these watercress and cheddar scones a few times for parties or work and they have always been pretty popular. They are very easy to make, which is a plus when baking for a larger crowd. I like to make them smaller in size so that they are just bite-sized and also easier to eat. I personally think that they taste better the day after the baking. I would normally always want to eat everything fresh from the oven, but the flavours really come together in these when they have rested for a while.

This recipe makes about 16 small scones.

Ingredients

200 g watercress

225 g self raising flour

Pinch of salt

Pinch of cayenne pepper

55 g butter

50 g mature Cheddar cheese

150 ml milk

Method

Remove the larger stalks from the watercress and coarsely chop them into a little bit smaller pieces.

Mix the flour, salt and cayenne pepper, and rub in the butter. Add the cheese, milk and watercress and knead only lightly into an even dough.

Spread the dough about 2 cm thick on a surface and cut scones from it with a small round cookie cutter. Brush the tops of the individual scones with a little milk and sprinkle some additional cheese on them.

Place the scones on baking paper and bake them for about 15 minutes at 220C until the tops are golden brown. And they are already done! You can either enjoy them fresh or the next day.

Your VegHog

Watercress and cheddar scones

These hearty and savoury watercress and cheddar scones are a wonderful addition to any Christmas party. They are easy to bake, but are a bit more unusual snack.

I got this recipe from the British watercress web page, but I have slightly amended their original recipe. Here's how I made them.

Ingredients

Makes about 8 scones.

100g watercress

200ml buttermilk

225g flour

2tsp baking powder

50g butter

75g mature cheddar

1tsp salt

½tsp cayenne pepper

Method

Remove any thicker stems from the watercress and chop it small. Grate the cheddar. Mix the flour, baking powder and salt, and rub the soft butter in. Add the watercress and the grated cheese to the mix, also mix the buttermilk in. Save little buttermilk for later. Season with the cayenne pepper. Mix the ingredients into an even dough.

Place the dough into muffin cases, about 2cm high. Brush the surfaces with buttermilk and sprinkle little cheddar on the top.

Bake the scones at 220C for about 20-25 minutes until baked throughout. You can poke a cocktail stick in to test that the scones are fully baked.

Let cool slightly, but these are best to be enjoyed warm.

Stay hungry!

Your VegHog

Cider battered smoke flavoured cheese and asparagus

A cider batter is a fine thing to coat cheese or vegetables with as it gives them such a lovely flavour! This recipe makes loads of batter, so feel free to use less ingredients if you don't want to fry so much and do try this also with other vegetables! However we are quickly approaching the end of the asparagus season and it's nice to make many different asparagus dishes. The battered cheese is brilliant on its own as well.

Ingredients:

Smoke flavoured Cheddar (I used 185g Applewood smoke flavoured Cheddar)

Asparagus

Vegetable oil for frying

Potato flour for coating

For the batter:

150g flour

250ml cider (I used Wyld Wood organic cider, see here)

Pinch of salt

Prepare the cheese and asparagus: cut the cheese into suitable bits, wash the asparagus and cut the hard bottom parts off.

Then make the batter by beating the ingredients together into an even paste. If it's too fluid add more flour. The batter should be fairly thick in order to stick properly to the cheese and veg.

I shallow-fried these in a pan but it should be quite easy to make in a deep-fryer. Heat a generous amount oil in a non-stick pan. Roll the cheese bits and asparagus first in plain potato flour by trying to cover them allover. This is important especially with the cheese that the content would be sealed well inside and melted cheese won't run out into your pan. Then roll them in the batter and fry until golden brown. The frying should be long enough to cook the asparagus soft.

Serve as a side dish or a starter and enjoy the flavours and the crispiness!

Your VegHog

Chili and Cheddar muffins

Savoury muffins are rather great and quirky but also easy to make. With the spiciness of these you could easily surprise your friends.

Makes about 15 muffins:

150g Butter

3 Eggs

3dl Flour

3tsp Baking powder

1tsp Salt

1/2dl Milk

2dl Grated chili Cheddar

Packet of chili soft cheese

Grate the cheese. Instead of the chili Cheddar also regular Cheddar or some other cheese could be used and fresh or dried chili added to the mix.

Mix the eggs and cheese with a hand mixer. Mix the dry ingredients together and add them to the cheese mix with the melted butter and milk. Mix it all to an even paste, which would look like a normal muffin dough but only taste savoury.

Put the paste into muffin cases up to approximately the middle and bake at 200C for about 20 minutes when the muffins have risen and received some golden brown colour.

Let the muffins cool down and top them with a soft cheese icing. Squirt soft cheese through an icing gun on the top of the muffins. The icing can also be left out as the muffins are quite cheesy and tasty even without it.

Happy baking moments!

Your VegHog